Functional Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis of Spacecraft Autonomous Collision Avoidance Systems
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Autonomous collision-avoidance systems can reduce dependence on immediate ground intervention, but they also create a distributed safety function whose performance depends on tracking, conjunction assessment, communications, onboard sensing and computing, autonomous decision-making, maneuver planning, and propulsion. This study applies a tailored functional Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis to a representative end-to-end architecture for autonomous spacecraft collision avoidance. The system boundary was defined through functions across the ground and spacecraft segments. Failure modes were derived from functional deviations and assessed in terms of effects, causes, baseline detection provisions, and recommended risk controls. Because mission-specific failure rates and calibrated diagnostic-coverage data were unavailable, the study uses a qualitative priority index based on relative severity, occurrence, and detectability rankings rather than a quantitative European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) criticality number. The rankings are engineering judgments for comparative prioritization; they are not operational statistics or independently validated quantitative risk estimates. The completed analysis contains 127 failure modes with baseline risk priority number (RPN) values. The highest RPN cases include a false-negative maneuver decision, false-negative input validation, an incorrect collision-probability output, delayed tracking and conjunction information, late onboard measurements, unusable navigation data, false-negative autonomous reconfiguration, erroneous resource-state reporting, and constraint-violating maneuver plans. High-severity modes are also screened independently of RPN. Cross-cutting findings concern information provenance and integrity, deadline assurance, validation asymmetry, authority coordination, resource and actuation assurance, and achieved-state verification. Recommendations address heterogeneous redundancy, calibration and health monitoring, conservative uncertainty treatment, independent decision checks, validated degraded modes, resource margins, and post-maneuver verification.
Source: Research Square
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203822795